Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Hamas senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh recently praised Malaysian delegations that had made trips to Gaza in order to provide medical and utility relief.

Haniyeh thanked the delegation and also Malaysians who have donated without any prejudice to help the beleaguered state’s plight.

Two different delegations had left Malaysia for the Gaza strip during this Ramadan month, with the first of them making a safe return on August 20.

The delegation of 44 people was dubbed ‘Ramadan March for Freedom’, and was headed by PKR Central Committee representative Ustaz Badrulamin, in co-organization with Majlis Perundingan Pertubuhan Islam Malaysia (MAPPIM).

The second delegation of 67 people, sponsored by the Putera 1Malaysia club, arrived in Gaza on August 12, where they had also met Haniyeh, who is one of the two disputed Prime Ministers for Palestine.

While the Freedom March delegation went to deliver donations offered to Gaza by Malaysians and also to survey the aid of further developments, the Putera 1 Malaysia delegation, which consisted of 39 doctors, concentrated on providing medical relief.

MAPPIM chairman Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid said that based on the observations by the delegation, few suggestions will be dished out to the Malaysian government to help with the rebuilding process in Gaza, among them being a hospital, a university and a mosque.

The two delegations managed to make it safely to the troubled state after Egypt opened its Rafah border in the wake of Israel’s recent attacks on boats transporting aids to Gaza.

Wee Meng Chee, popularly known as Namawee will be investigated under the Sedition Act.“Three police cars finally came to my Muar home to arrest me. This happened 15 minutes before our 53rd National Day Celebration, Yes, I'm still here but for how long more, I don't know ... my beloved Malaysia, where is our justice system?!”, reads a posting in his Facebook page.The 27 year old rapper was not at home when police arrived at his house. However, he will be investigated for sedition due to a video he uploaded onto Youtube for allegedly stoking racial tension. If convicted, Wee faces up to three years of imprisonment.The video entitled ‘Nah’, which is a slang word for ‘no’, used strong obscene language to refer to an incident where a Johor headmistress, Siti Inshah Mansor asked Chinese students to return to China; and made references to the Hindu's prayer strings as dog leashes during school assembly, which irked the non-Muslims.In Namawee’s official blog, there was an entry which explained the expletives he used. “I have used obscene language blatantly as a form of communication in some of my videos but that does not mean I am not educated or that I have committed a serious crime. Vulgar content was chosen only with the objective of bringing forward my point of view (and the view of many people) with more impact”, he said. In 2007, Namawee made headlines with another of his video posting 'Negarakuku' which was regarded as a mockery to the national anthem. In the video, Wee touched on issues like corruption. He made a public apology and the matter was laid to rest.